94 people charged with Islamist coup plot in UAE

SAMI ABOUDI

THE UNITED Arab Emirates has ordered 94 citizens to be tried on charges of seeking to seize power, its attorney general said.

State news agency WAM yesterday quoted, Salem Saeed Kubaish as saying the suspects had publicly called for adherence to the Islamic religion when in fact they were secretly plotting to take over the country.

“Their unannounced aims were to seize power and confronting the main principles which the rule is based on,” Mr Kubaish said.

“They had plotted for that discreetly at secret meetings they held in their homes, farms and other places.”

The UAE last year rounded up about 60 people, many members of al-Islah, an Islamist group suspected of links to the banned Muslim Brotherhood.

Al-Khaleej newspaper said in September the detained Islamists had confessed to setting up a secret organisation with an armed wing with the aim of seizing power and establishing an Islamist state in the UAE.

The UAE, a major oil exporter, tolerates no organised political opposition to the rule of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan.